"There was a martial law in 1942. After the annihilation of Lidice village Germans were attacking several villages. The German soldiers came unexpectedly at night and surrounded the whole village. Then they searched house by house if there were any weapons. That was the martial law. If they found anyone with a weapon they shot him right away. In Krašovice- the village where I lived - they found weapons in two houses. It was in the mill and then in Mr. Bašek´s house. They took them away and shot them the same day. We found out about it later. My husband was a forester so he had some weapons too. He had two weapons which were registered. So when the Germans soldiers came to us they found out that everything was just all right. We used to have a desk too. My husband wanted to unlock it, because it was locked. But he forgot that he had an old revolver there! It was our only luck that the German soldier waved his hand and didn’t insist on opening this desk. He was satisfied that we had two our weapons registered. Only after they left we found out that they have actually shot the other two people. There were another people from the village which used to have a gun. One of them was the forest keeper. When he saw the soldiers approaching, he put his gun in the corner of the room and threw a coat over it. The Germans didn’t look under that coat luckily. We thought if they would have found all our weapons it would have been another Lidice disaster. My husband later went and buried the gun somewhere to avoid this situation in the future. The war was cruel, there were check ups everywhere, and everybody was frightened."
"We arrived to Germany at 5pm and because it was in January, it was already really dark outside. Moreover there was the regulation of mandatory blackout. People were not allowed to turn the lights on so that in case of an air attack the enemy planes wouldn’t see us. When we arrived to Munich the bus took us to some huge hall - it was probably some theater, because there was a stage where few men in German uniforms were sitting. The hall was completely full of us - you couldn’t even count how many of us were there. We waited patiently for them to call our names. They began calling our names - their information was so precise, they knew all about each of us. They made a group of about thirty or thirty five girls and put us then on the bus. It was dark all over; we didn’t know where we’re going or what will happen with us. Finally we arrived to a forest. We got off the bus and some soldiers took us into some kind of military facility and closed the gate behind us. German soldiers were all over there. It was a fenced camp. So we arrived without knowing what would happen the after. They took us into some wooden houses. Since there was thirty two of us, they put half of us in one room and the other half in the other room. There were bunk beds in each room which we occupied quickly. We were really afraid that someone might get in through the night (we only saw German soldiers here) and since we couldn’t lock the door we put chairs and tables behind the door at least. At night someone knocked on the door in deed. It was also German soldier, our camp leader. He was in charge of us and came in to check how we were doing there. In the morning when we woke up we realized that we were not alone there. We saw another hundred and twenty Czech boys, which arrived after we did. We were happy to see them and were happy that we won’t be alone there anymore. The next day we lined up outside and they started to assign different jobs for each of us. There were storages of military materials, the place was called Flak - which means aerial, and there were aerial things, which were sending to the front. Some of us went to the halls and the rest of us - about ten girls- went to the kitchen, because they needed someone to cook for our boys."
"You told me the last time that you have had a brother who was also forcibly deployed in Vienna."
"Yes, my brother was in Vienna. He ran away from there and then he was hiding by several friends of his in Prague. It’s only a coincidence that they never caught him."
"And what was he doing in Vienna?"
"He was working in some factory too but I don’t remember where exactly it was. He ran away after few months there. We didn’t know anything about him. He wouldn’t tell anyone where he was. He was afraid that he might reveal himself by doing that. We didn’t know about him until the war was over. Only then he let us know where he was."
"Did you have any other siblings?"
"No. Just my brother. He came back from Canada, he was here two years and then he died."
"Did he immigrate to Canada?"
"He left to Canada in 1968, when the borders were open. There was some exhibition in Montreal back then, some of the Czechoslovak products were also shown there, so my brother simply bought a ticket for this exhibition and left. He went through the security vetting before, because he worked in the aircraft factory in Prague. He also had a lot of contraptions; he graduated also from the Electrical Engineering. More over - he didn’t have any kids, he was not married either. He was a kind of an adventurer...He let us know about his trip. He left as a regular passenger with his leaving permit to Montreal. He had some friends in Toronto from whom he talked to, so basically he didn’t stay in Montreal for any long and went straight to Toronto and stayed there since. He came back to Czech Republic after he retired, when he was 65 years old. He was waiting there for the retirement, which is in Canada from 65 years of age. Only after that he could come back here. He just made it to the 1989 - the end of communism. In June of 1989 I was there to visit him, he sent me an invitation. And could have known that on Christmas the same year he will be able to come back without any troubles. He was afraid to come back with me, he was saying: ´I can’t go back there with you; they would put me to jail. I was here in Canada illegally.´ But then all of a sudden the revolution came and he could arrive for Christmas."
"I was assigned with the others to work in the kitchen. Therefore I had nothing to do with weapons in the storages. But it was all confidential anyway. There were Russian prisoners from Dachau camp bringing material and other stuff in our camp. They were guarded by German soldiers all the time. There used to be a rail leading right into our camp. When we saw those poor Russians, we always tried to help them somehow. We were collecting the leftover bread from the kitchen for them. We waited until our head cooks didn’t pay attention...We used to have four cooks - our German bosses - but they were from Bavaria and were really nice too. They were treated us real good. When we collected the bread we waited for the Russians to come again and then we threw the bread to them. Once when we did it of the bosses saw us. We were afraid what she might do to us. But she came to us and told us not to worry that she won’t tell on us. She told us she had two sons somewhere by Stalingrad and that she doesn’t have any news from them. She said she would also be grateful if some Russian mother would throw her boys piece of bread. That was really touching. When the Russians came the next time we were not afraid anymore to give them something."
"I got to get home twice from the camp. In the meantime my future husband also requested my release, because he was a forester and widower, plus he had a small daughter. He was employer of the Prince Metternich who agreed that he needs a wife. Therefore they let me go home - only for two weeks though, for the wedding and after that I was supposed to return to the camp immediately. It was just before Christmas. I already had my ticket to the camp. But because there was the war, I had to take the bus instead of going on train. And the bus driver took only the workers on the bus. I was standing in front of the bus with my suitcase in my hand and the driver didn’t let me get on. He said: ´Sorry madam, but I’m allowed to drive only the workers. You have to go to Plzeň somehow else.´ So I stayed home for good. At the beginning they were threatening me with Mirošov prison, but I was already pregnant anyway, so I was saying: ´Nothing can happen.´ And nothing really happened. In March I received the termination of employment and the rest of the money. And that was the end of my work in Germany."
Mrs. Lidmila Výšková, neé Lídlová, was born on June 22nd 1923 in Manětín town. She lived in Plzeň later. She apprenticed to a hairdresser and later pursued her profession in Plasy town. By the end of 1942, just as she and her boyfriend were getting ready for their wedding, she received a notation that she was being forcibly deployed in Germany. On January 18th 1943 she left on the transport train to Munich. She went to Schleissheim town nearby Munich where she was assigned for work in anti-aircraft defense depot. (In Flak town) She was working in local kitchen. Her future husband, who was a widower with a small daughter, worked as a forester for Prince Metternich. He arranged a leaving permit for her to get married in October of 1943. After their wedding she was supposed to come back to Munich. She never returned. Due to this reason she was threatened by the criminal Mirošov camp, which she escaped eventually through pregnancy. After her wedding she stayed at home and took care of the kids. Later on she worked in forest nurseries. She lived with her family in lodge in Krašovice village. After her husband retired they moved to Plzeň town. Mrs. Výšková stayed in touch with people from the deployment, they used to called themselves ´The Flakers’ - according to the Flak town.
